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Q&A with Lucas Bell, General Manager Spray Dynamics

Lucas Bell, General Manager of Spray Dynamics, a subsidiary of Heat and Control

October 16, 2017

Lucas Bell got his foot in the door at Spray Dynamics by sweeping shop
floors back when he was in college and immediately took an interest in
the engineering and manufacturing areas of the business.

Once Lucas joined Spray Dynamics as a Mechanical Engineer, he worked
in project engineering for about 18 months before moving into the
manufacturing manager role. After being in that role for 2 years, it
opened up the opportunity for Lucas to eventually lead both the
manufacturing and engineering groups, giving him a broader view
of the business.

In 2011, Lucas became responsible for all operations of the Spray Dynamics product line and filed
that role for six years, assuming the position of General Manager after the retirement of Spray
Dynamics founder, Dave Homeyer at the end of 2016.

Being involved with multiple facets of the business during his tenure with the company, as well as
proactive preparation by the group for the retirement of Dave, has allowed for a smooth transition
of leadership at Spray Dynamics.

Lucas Bell has spent his career designing and manufacturing top of the line equipment systems for
the food and beverage industry.

Seasoning system of Spray Dynamics

After graduating with a BS in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and working in the beverage brewing /
packaging industry, Lucas joined Spray Dynamics in 2007. With his engineer’s attention to detail and
persistent focus on effiency, streamlining processes and thinking outside the box, Lucas helped
drive Spray Dynamics’ efforts towards assisting snack processors improve product appearance and
quality, with a variety of cost-effective applicators for dry and wet seasonings and coatings.

The company expanded to serve bakery, cereal, and other food / non-food markets, all while
developing ever-higher capacity snack coating systems.

As an industry leader, Spray Dynamics
joined Heat and Control in 2011 and continues to develop equipment for in-kitchen and on
machine seasoning applications under Lucas’s direction at its St. Clair, Missouri headquarters.

What market trends are driving development at Spray Dynamics?

We are continuing to see a consistent growth in the snack
industry, as well as renewed growth in the pet food/litter and
agricultural industries. We are also starting to see increased
interest in drying applications for a variety of products that
span across multiple markets

Can you give a ‘sneak peak’ of new developments on the
horizon that you can speak of?

We are working on a few developments this year. The first
involves improving dry powder applications and the second
involves taking rotary drying technology to the next level.

One of the new developments at Spray Dynamics involves dry powder application...

During your time with Spray Dynamics what changes have
you seen?

I’ve been with the company a combined tenure of 10 years
now and have been involved in the growth of our business’s
product line. We have doubled our staf numbers and increased
annual sales three-fold. We have really streamlined some of
our best business practices and manufacturing techniques and
workflows over the years to aid in our ever increasing workloads.

Why should food processors’ choose Spray Dynamics equipment?

Our extensive process knowledge in the industry, as well as
our high standard of quality, customer service and ability to
be extremely felxible with custom solutions really gives us an
edge over the competition.

We help our customers develop
new processes and/or assist with optimising existing processes
to improve efficiencies and save time and money.

Can one seasoning system do it all or is equipment product
specific?

While we make our machines as flexible as possible for
our customers to get the biggest bang for their buck, each
equipment system is custom designed for the product and
process at hand.

Related

There are several systems for similar products
that have an overlap of design to increase the flxibility, but
base product type, bulk density, shape and rate, as well as
the corresponding liquid and dry application types, rates and
ratios needed fully define the correct system required for each
application.

Tell us about the new ‘look’ team.

We have a very tight-knit team at Spray Dynamics which
includes a management group that has the mantra to LEAD
and work hard alongside our employees. We firmly believe that
each employee in our company makes the facility run optimally
every day and each member of the Spray Dynamics team brings
something to the table.

Our strengths are relentless energy, transparency,
communication and the culture to do the right thing every
time. While we always push to be happy, we are never satisfied
and are constantly looking for ways to improve ourselves, our
product line, our processes and our relationships in the industry.

Spray Dynamics new facilities

Spray Dynamics' team at the site of the new facilities

Spray Dynamics’ new
facilities will be located
in Union, Missouri, USA,
and will initially employ
50-60 personnel with
the ability to expand
to over 100 employees
in the years to come.

The building will be
located on a 13.32 acre
green field site and the
total manufacturing
and office areas will be
approximately 103,000
square foot (9570 sqm).

This facility will offer the
latest in manufacturing
capability, modern
office and engineering
space, product
testing rooms and
also allows for future
site development.
Completion is expected by end 2017.

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